a couple of months ago me and my friend decided it was time to get new computers. He's a little rich kid who's mommy and daddy pay for everything. Me, well I work for what I own, and I have good credit.
My friend bought an Area 51 gaming machine with an 18" plasma monitor for almost $4000 from the Alienware website. He also had to wait like 12 days for the system to be custom built and shipped.
I built my own system, that was identical to his own, except I got a custom case that had 3 more fans than his. My computer also has an LED screen that tells my CPU and Harddrive temperatures.
Custom building my own computer, with a 20" flat screen monitor, cost me $1400 less than him. I got the chance to learn how to build my own computer from online tutorials, and unlike him, i have a windows xp cd, not just some system recovery disk.
Building you own computer isn't THAT difficult. Especially if you have ever taken your old computer apart to replace a card or chip. It's also much more cost efficient.